Those look like the best plant stands EVER!

-Babka

brilliant ...

and i bet rather cheap.. since you recycled all of it ...

making trees fall down is usually rather cheap ... if you are willing to take care of the rest ... and he doesnt have to bring 3 other guys.. the chipper.. the stump grinder ... and spend 8 hours cleaning up ...

he really showed up in 2 hours .. ??? .. and the prior is why ...

ken

Moc - I knew you wouldn't be "stumped" on what to do with the stump. And you can keep changing the look of it.

DD

Looks great, I like the natural look of wood, I did the same thing last year.

I looks like you are doing the perfect thing with your dead pine tree. It made the most awesome plant stands!

Well done!

Linda

Because it was so rotten and I had no idea. Soom of the "wood" was in tissue thin layers, like the termites had eaten all the goody and left just the glue/lignin. I was alarmed at how it swayed when he began yanking on those vines. Once they were off, he took this tool and started stripping the bark, and revealed the dead and rotten part near the ground. It had "grown" a big hill of dirt all around it, which I've raked away mostly (except for the part with the roots of my jasmine, which I will transplant in a more secure spot to make nice shade for the hosta, on the WEST side of the garden.

He did it alone. He happened to be out in his workshop working on a machine instead of off on another job. So I caught him at a good time. Evergreen Tree Service. He gave a discount for seniors too. Insured too. He was such a businesslike worker, but also had good people skills. It was a hazardous job, and he did it with finesse. At the end, we insisted he take full price which was cheap enough compared to the price we paid to take out our other trees...up into the thousands for them. Nice guy. He said a senior is anyone older than he is!

LOVE my plant stands. They look so natural, which of course they are. The heart of the pine is not rotten, it rotted from the outside in. The tree was about 60 years old, or what could be counted of the rings totaled 60. Our house is 60 years old. I guess this was a sapling along the fence line when the place was built in 1950. The pine was on the strip of land I bought from the backyard neighbor, so I could create my garden. It had been struck by lightning.

He will be back in the fall after the hosta go to sleep, to cut some of the pecan limbs that are above half of my garden. I keep fishing small twigs and larger pieces of limbs out of the pots, but if the larger limb comes down, it will crush more than a leaf or two. Might even take out my new hosta stadium bleachers! Now that the tree is down and such, I can continue the work on the pecan bleacher area.

Always something, isn't there?

Thanks, guys and gals. I was sad it needed to come down, but it turned out to be a blessing. It is making a big difference with the larger plants that now have a place to perch. Solving the problem of lifting the pots of a goodly size is put them up there empty. Fill them after.

Now that the pine is down, I realize that the 10 foot tall single latticed vertical screen (or whatever you wish to call it) will create some shade from the intensely hot afternoon sun....which is what I'd settled on as shade for the long rays that get below my umbrellas. And that adds more space for hosta, which I see in a raised bed (in the ground) on the garden side of that screen, moving the maturing plants out of pots and into the ground of a raised bed for good drainage. And shade in the winter, when the sun is low in the southern sky. Sounds like a plan to me.

I like the way you can display your hosta at different heights throughout the garden in addition to the bleachers/stadium. You really have it made there, Mocc! I bet the smell of wood was divine while the stump was reduced to workable pieces and the additional mulch is a windfall as well. What an exciting but very productive day! :-)

You take care no falling pieces hit you! Glad he's coming back to attend to those pecan limbs.

Jo, I like the different display heights too. I was appreciating the tree rounds today when a friend came over to see the garden first time this year. Positioned as they are at the end of rows they create a sense of order. Plus the natural look, without being rustic. I'm not a formal gardener, but I like to adapt the features of a formal garden to my casual home grown paradise.

Another picture of the remaining stump, not quite cleaned up yet. And the tree rounds before I moved them.into place.
The guy did a great job with only sawdust flying into the hosta which were really close. I was rinsing the sawdust off today, in case the pine was green enough to tie up the nitrogen as it aged and died out.

Good use of salvaged material! I just hope it doesn't host termites which will then switch their loyalty to your house or deck.

Good heavens, what would Robert the vindictive co-op manager say about taking down a tree??? He'd have Mow & Blow Inc. throw your hostas down the wood chipper, too and then plow under your garden.

Aren't you happy you don't live HERE?

BTW, I have now completed surrounding every single plant in my gardens with egg-sized smooth round stones and put new mulch on every inch. I did not see any squirrel damage when I came home today. I hope the stones do the trick to change their minds about digging up plants and divots.

And I got several more compliments on my garden as I labored outside mulching.

I love this idea to use pieces like this as plant stands. It will add even more character to your garden. I regret not saving big pieces from my Cottonwood, but then again being on a hillside, I didn't know what to do with them. You have a great set up to use them all. ....And how lucky that you can grow jasmine. I miss that fragrance in the garden.

I really like when garden looks natural and lush as possible, nice job!

Good for you, Esther, the egg sized gravel must have been hard to lug home. Those things are not light-weight. Hope that works. You were the one who clued me in to the crushed red pepper, which seems to work with squirrels here. The ground cayenne did not last long enough. I bet your habaneros had something to do with no digging as well.

Sandy, I could not get over how the fragrance permeates the air. It is like having the fragrant hosta blooming in May and a little into June. It is not overwhelming, and no allergic reaction to it, like to the ligustrum which blooms and drops blooms all over everything, and puffs up your head...

As for termites, they are a fact of life here. They were swarming for a while before the tree came down, and sure there were signs of them in the crumbling rotted wood. Anything of wood laid on the ground will become a meal for them. However, our house and buildings are treated (and insured) against termite damage. Our foundation and house are stucco, the deck is treated wood, and when it is rebuilt it will be those synthetic boards which has no insects to eat it. Or at least not so far. One of these days, there will be an insect which adapts to eating plastic and fiberglas!